1.5.1 Censorship and Entertainment Control Act [Chapter 10:04] This statute presents itself as the premier legislation in terms of censorship of artistic works in Zimbabwe. In the long title, the Act is enacted: to regulate and control the public exhibition of films, the importation, production, dissemination and possession of undesirable or prohibited video and film material, publications, pictures, statues and records and the giving of public entertainments; to regulate theatres entertainment in the interests of safety; and and like places to provide of public for matters incidental to the foregoing. The Act will be reviewed in detail later in this report when dealing with censorship in Zimbabwe. However, it suffices to give a brief history of this Act and censorship practice so as to put the issue of censorship under Zimbabwean law into perspective. 1.5.2 Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (herein Criminal Code) was adopted to codify and reform all common law offences into one statute. The legal position in the aftermath of its adoption is that all offences are established either in the Criminal Code or any other statute that criminalises specific conduct in the sphere of application of the Act in question. Being the premier criminal statute in Zimbabwe, the Criminal Code has been interpreted consistently to criminalise artistic expression that is viewed as highly critical of political leadership and other state institutions and actors such as the police. The case of Owen Maseko is one good example. 37 In that case the artist had installed a public exhibition of various artistic expressions depicting the mass atrocities committed by government forces in Matabeleland in the 1980s. The State used various sections of the Criminal Code (sections 33 and 42) to prosecute the artist for staging the exhibition, which effectively was banned. Artist who was arrested and charged using section 31 and 33 of the Criminal Codification and Reform Act to censor artistic works aimed at interrogating what happened during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland region. 37 27 | P a g e